An offbeat find this week has me chuckling. I'm sharing a story for St. Patrick's Day regarding one of my Irish relatives too. This makes it a twofer.
I found transcribed early voter lists from Adams County, Ohio, including one from Huntington Township in 1810.
I agree. Voting lists are not normally humorous. I'm laughing, though, because among the votes cast for Ohio Governor in that township that year was one for my fourth great grandfather. Yes, one.
As far as I know, James McConnell, age 35 at the time, was not a candidate against the man actually elected that year--Thomas Worthington.
How does this happen in 1810? I guess Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and some of today's protest vote write-ins weren't household names yet.
Suppose his friends shared a laugh with him? Here's hoping he had a sense of humor about it.
Did he vote for himself? If the transcription is correct, he didn't cast a vote that year at all.
Could he have voted but erred by putting his own name where write-ins were supposed to be?
See? Humorous.
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UPDATE: A request to the Adams County Historical Society to get a copy of the actual voter list document, instead of a transcript of a transcript, has failed. The document has been lost to the archives somewhere. We may never know the true story.
